The invention concerns a condenser designed to form part of a refrigeration circuit, in particular in an air conditioning installation for a motor vehicle.
It concerns more especially a condenser able to have passing through it a refrigeration fluid and comprising a removable reservoir connected to a header of the condenser and able to have the refrigeration fluid passing through it.
In a refrigeration circuit of this type, the refrigeration fluid is sent, in superheated vapour phase, under the action of a compressor to the condenser, in which it is successively cooled or "de-superheated", condensed to a hot liquid phase, then "sub-cooled" to a cold liquid phase.
The refrigeration fluid thus condensed and cooled is then sent, via a pressure reducing valve, to an evaporator where it exchanges heat with a flow of air to be sent into the passenger compartment of the vehicle. In this evaporator, the refrigeration fluid is transformed to the vapour phase, while the flow of air is cooled, thereby enabling conditioned air to be supplied. The refrigeration fluid in the vapour phase then leaves the evaporator to enter the compressor, and so on.
A condenser of this type normally comprises a bank of tubes mounted between two headers, so that the condensation and then cooling of the condensed refrigeration fluid take place as the latter moves through the tubes in the bank.
From EP-A-0 480 330, a condenser of this type is already known in which the reservoir is removable and is furthermore connected at an intermediate point to the bank situated between a first part of the bank where the refrigeration fluid is condensed, and a second part of the bank where the condensed refrigeration fluid is sub-cooled.
This reservoir is designed to collect some of the hot condensed refrigeration fluid in order to sub-cool it and separate the liquid and vapour phases of the refrigeration fluid, which is then sub-cooled further in the second part of the bank.
Furthermore, this reservoir normally contains a desiccating product to dehydrate the refrigeration fluid.
In the condenser known from the publication EP-A-0 480 330, the reservoir has a receiving part which is able to cooperate with an adaptation part provided on the header of the condenser, these two parts being fixed by a screw-type fixing means.
There results the drawback that, where the reservoir needs to be replaced, it is necessary to replace the whole assembly formed by the reservoir proper and the receiving part with which it is integral.
Furthermore, this known reservoir is particularly bulky.
It should also be emphasised that, in this known condenser, the options for the location and orientation of the reservoir are limited.
The result is that a single condenser can be used in each case only for a closely-defined type of vehicle.
The invention aims notably to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks.